Search results are cluttered with people I shouldn't source from. I made an extension to remove them one by one.
The Mercari search bar is gradually getting murky.
Since I do dropshipping for export, I open Mercari, Rakuma, and PayPay Flea Market many times a day. I type in keywords to look for products that seem like they would sell well overseas. I do this every day.
But the search results aren't clean.
Among the listings that appear for the same keyword, there are always people you shouldn't buy from mixed in. What's more, you can't tell at a glance. I open the product page, look at the profile, realize, 'Oh, this person is no good,' and go back. This back-and-forth starts to take a toll.
There are different types of 'people you shouldn't buy from'.
I tried making a list myself, and they generally fall into three categories.
1. People from whom buying is pointless
Sellers who are also selling the same products on eBay. Large-scale businesses. These are people standing on the same playing field as me. Even if I source from them, I'll just end up in a price war with the same person at the export destination. There's no profit in it.
2. People who cause accidents if you buy from them
Dropshipping sellers who don't hold inventory. 'Order-on-demand' sellers who take 4 to 7 days to ship. Since I'm also dropshipping, buying from them results in double dropshipping. If they cancel, my overseas order falls through. It collapses like a chain reaction. People who force their own rules on you and those suspected of selling fakes also fall into this category.
3. Just noise
People who have listings up, but you don't know if their account is active or dead. Will they reply? Do they even intend to sell? It's a waste of time to check.
The problem is that these three types are calmly lined up in the search results. Every time, I have to sort them out in my head. This 'every time' happens dozens of times a day.
And this isn't just a tool for me alone.
One important thing: I'm actually not the only one looking at flea market apps every day to pick up sourcing candidates. I have outsourced staff helping me with a large part of it.
In other words, the trouble of 'sorting out people you shouldn't buy from every time' is happening just as much for my outsourced staff. Moreover, this judgment is hard to explain in words. 'Avoid people who look like dropshippers,' 'Skip businesses that also sell on eBay'—when put into words, it's vague and varies from person to person.
So, I gave the 'Keshikomi-kun' (Eraser) tool to my outsourced staff as well.
What's interesting is that the act of 'erasing' itself conveys the criteria for judgment. When you encounter a bad seller, you erase them. By repeating that, the sense of 'Oh, this kind of person isn't suitable for sourcing' becomes intuitive faster than reading a manual.
The lists are stored locally for each person, so they aren't shared. But that's fine. **Each person's search bar clears its own murkiness through their own experience.** The 'time saved from not having to look' for the entire team accumulates little by little every day.
That's why I made it possible to erase them.
What I created is a Chrome extension called 'Keshikomi-kun'. What it does is really simple:
Once you decide 'this person is no good,' they won't appear in your search results from then on.
You press the erase button once on the product page. Then, that seller's listings disappear from your search. The next time you type in the same keyword, that person won't show up anymore.
It doesn't have any flashy features. It doesn't use AI. All it does is let you avoid seeing people you don't want to see.
But it works every single day.
The more you use it, the more your search results grow into your own personal sourcing ledger. The noise decreases one person at a time, leaving only those who are worth sourcing from. After just a week of use, you will visibly see the clutter in your search bar diminish.
The way to remove them differs by site
This was the part that was surprisingly difficult.
Rakuma: The extension removes cards directly from the search results.
PayPay Flea Market: The extension also hides them here.
Mercari: This is the only one where I use the official block feature (the extension doesn't remove them on its own, but creates a shortcut to the native block function).
Due to how Mercari is structured, I couldn't remove them from searches using just an extension. So, I focused on creating a workflow that makes it easier to click 'block.' Rather than forcing a private backdoor, I chose to stick to the site's rules while just cutting out the hassle. I believe this was the right decision for a tool meant to be used for a long time.
The less flashy the tool, the more you use it every day
Honestly, this is a hard tool to brag about. If someone asks, 'You just remove sellers?', the answer is yes.
But this was the tool I wanted most, and it's the one I have my outsourcers use every day. It's not magic that multiplies sales by ten, but a tool that removes one unnecessary step from your daily decisions. Even if the effort saved by one person in one day is small, it adds up across a team and over time.
When you repeat the same actions in the field, there is always a moment where you think, 'Can't I get a machine to do this?' If you don't miss that moment, and you can reduce the workload not just for yourself, but for the people working with you—then I consider the tool a success.
It's not flashy, but I use it every day. And I'm not the only one. I like tools like that.
Keshikomi-kun is available for free on the Chrome Web Store.
👉 https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/fdeccpihhpanbokfcgkjbhgidcommkhn
I hope this reaches those who look at flea market apps for dropshipping every day.
Bonus: Sister tool 'Furima Chohyo-kun'
I've built another tool for the same 'people who look at flea market apps every day' audience.
Furima Chohyo-kun — An extension that automatically compiles sourcing receipts and second-hand ledgers from your purchase history on Mercari, Rakuma, PayPay Flea Market, Rakuten, and Yahoo! Shopping. I built it to stop having to take screenshots, print them, and file them every time tax season comes around.
👉 https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bjncimnjbiobjiflpjeomhaehhfeofon
If Keshikomi-kun is a tool for "removing noise before sourcing," then Chohyo-kun is a tool for "removing records after sourcing (i.e., removing manual work)." Both are designed to chip away at the tedious, mundane tasks in the field, one by one.